Book Review: Eon’s Door by J.G. McKenney

The first thing that grabs your attention about Eon’s Door is the map and list of characters in the front. Generally if an author takes the time to put both in their writings, they tend to create an intricately weaved story with a mass of characters in a confusing, wondrous world like nothing you could imagine yourself. Hence the essence of the gift of a writer who can pull the two together; a cast of amazing characters in unearthly types and styles who reside within various areas of mythical places, all in order to create a story that will take you away from the world as we know it.

To be honest, in the beginning it’s a bit overwhelming to look at the map, the list of characters and start to read a book that contains walking trees and strange characters that you’re not sure what to think of. Do I go back and try to decipher things or do I read on and figure out what’s what and who’s who? This is the one and only fault of the book itself. It gives you the sense before you even begin to read, that the book is a tangled web of stories, characters, and places that will bring to you confusion; so the author offers up the list of characters and map to help you as you go along. While in some ways I truly understand the reasoning, I think it almost puts a fright in the reader themselves as to “will I keep track of what’s going and who is what?” The truth of the matter is if you relax, read the book, go with the flow, and allow your mind to wander with the book, the confusion melds into a story that takes you away into a world of magic and wonder.

The story itself is one of a new world, created as three clans escape the human world through Eon’s Door. However, they’re told a prophecy of a time when the key to Eon’s Door will be stolen and their worlds will be torn apart. The worlds of wonder, walking trees, nature at its very soul and unlike anything humans could imagine will be torn apart. Yet they’re also told of a courageous young man who can help them but only if he, with the help of others, can retrieve the key and close Eon’s Door before the damage is done.

It’s a story of friendships, kindness, betrayal, and good versus evil. You go from knowing that good will prevail to being sure evil will conquer.

McKenney has an amazingly wondrous imagination that he uses to create an extensive number of characters from nature becoming “human like” and taking on life unlike anything us humans know and yet gives them such character that you feel their inner souls. An amazing story filled with beauty, magic, wonder, terror, sadness, loss, victory, love, hatred and every other feelings you can imagine; all created between human and non-human beings. It’s a story that entraps your mind and takes you away from the real world and once you get past the wonder of if you should try to sit and decipher people, places, and characters and realize that if you just let it flow through your mind it will take you over and all come together.

Eon’s Door is a must read for anyone who enjoys a touch of mythical creatures and magic. It reminded me a lot of the beginning and written version of something to the effect of Avatar, long before the world knew this type of magic existed. As a matter of fact it brought to mind a kind of mixture of Avatar meets Lord of the Rings — only with characters who are truly more interesting and amazing. That Eon’s Door belongs in such a category of entertainment is a notion that shouldn’t be taken lightly, especially by the author.